Introduction to the SESAR WP-E research nerwork: HALA (Higher Automation Levels in ATM)

HALA! (Higher Automation Levels in Automation) is a SESAR WP-E Research Network inspired and underpinned by the highest principles of collaboration, transparency and innovation for the effective application of automation of the ATM processes. HALA! is ready to support and complement SESAR R&D activities in Automation, providing a Scientific Collaborative Platform through the participation by the most relevant world class universities, R&D centers and industry in AT

Novel Negotiation protocol to support CDM process in a layered ATM System

In the SESAR Step 2 concept of operations a RBT is available and seen by all making it possible to conceive a different operating method than the current ATM system based on Collaborative Decisions Making processes. Currently there is a need to describe in more detail the mechanisms by which actors (ATC, Network Management, Flight Crew, airports and Airline Operation Centre) will negotiate revisions to the RBT. This paper introduces a negotiation model, which uses constraint based programing applied to a mediator to facilitate negotiation process in a SWIM enabled environment. Three processes for modelling the negotiation process are explained as well a preliminary reasoning agent algorithm modelled with constraint satisfaction problem is presented. Computational capability of the model is evaluated in the conclusion

Present and future ecological niche modeling of garter snake species from the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt

Articulo producto parcial de tesis doctoralLand use and climate change are affecting the abundance and distribution of species. The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) is a very diverse region due to geological history, geographic position, and climate. It is also one of the most disturbed regions in Mexico. Reptiles are particularly sensitive to environmental changes due to their low dispersal capacity and thermal ecology. In this study, we define the important environmental variables (considering climate, topography, and land use) and potential distribution (present and future) of the five Thamnophis species present in TMVB. To do so, we used the maximum entropy modeling software (MAXENT). First, we modeled to select the most important variables to explain the distribution of each species, then we modeled again using only the most important variables and projected these models to the future considering a middle-moderate climate change scenario (rcp45), and land use and vegetation variables for the year 2050 (generated according to land use changes that occurred between years 2002 and 2011). Arid vegetation had an important negative effect on habitat suitability for all species, and minimum temperature of the coldest month was important for four of the five species. Thamnophis cyrtopsis was the species with the lowest tolerance to minimum temperatures. The maximum temperature of the warmest month was important for T. scalaris and T. cyrtopsis. Low percentages of agriculture were positive for T. eques and T. melanogaster but, at higher values, agriculture had a negative effect on habitat suitability for both species. Elevation was the most important variable to explain T. eques and T. melanogaster potential distribution while distance to Abies forests was the most important variable for T. scalaris and T. scaliger. All species had a high proportion of their potential distribution in the TMVB. However, according to our models, all Thamnophis species will experience reductions in their potential distribution in this region. T. scalaris will suffer the biggest reduction because this species is limited by high temperatures and will not be able to shift its distribution upward, as it is already present in the highest elevations of the TMVB.Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México: 4047/2016SF. CONACY

High Density en Route airspace safety level and colllision risk estimation based on stored aircraft tracks

The major constraint in developing appropriate monitoring methodologies and tools to assess the level of safety in en-route airspaces where controllers monitor air traffic by means of radar surveillance and provide aircraft with tactical instructions lies in the estimation of the operational risk. The operational risk estimate normally relies on incident reports provided by the air navigation service providers (ANSPs). The provision of incident reports is highly dependent on the safety management practices of each ANSP and requires the complete cooperation of both controllers (in identifying and reporting altitude deviations) and incident investigators (in providing operational reports to the RMA in good time). The EUROCONTROL 2009 SRC Annual Safety Report concludes that whilst "there has been an improvement in reporting of safety occurrences, overall progress towards full reporting by states is too slow." This paper presents a new and innovative approach to assessing aircraft safety level within En-route Airspaces based upon the process and analysis of radar tracks. The proposed methodology has been designed to complement the information collected in the accident and incident databases, thereby providing the following information inferred from the in depth assessment of proximate event

Identifying physical activity type in manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury by means of accelerometers

Objectives: The main objective of this study was to develop and test classification algorithms based on machine learning using accelerometers to identify the activity type performed by manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury (SCI). Setting: The study was conducted in the Physical Therapy department and the Physical Education and Sports department of the University of Valencia. Methods: A total of 20 volunteers were asked to perform 10 physical activities, lying down, body transfers, moving items, mopping, working on a computer, watching TV, arm-ergometer exercises, passive propulsion, slow propulsion and fast propulsion, while fitted with four accelerometers placed on both wrists, chest and waist. The activities were grouped into five categories: sedentary, locomotion, housework, body transfers and moderate physical activity. Different machine learning algorithms were used to develop individual and group activity classifiers from the acceleration data for different combinations of number and position of the accelerometers. Results: We found that although the accuracy of the classifiers for individual activities was moderate (55-72%), with higher values for a greater number of accelerometers, grouped activities were correctly classified in a high percentage of cases (83.2-93.6%). Conclusions: With only two accelerometers and the quadratic discriminant analysis algorithm we achieved a reasonably accurate group activity recognition system (490%). Such a system with the minimum of intervention would be a valuable tool for studying physical activity in individuals with SCI.X Garcia-Masso gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Valencia under project UV-INV-PRECOMP13-115364.García-Massó, X.; Serra-Añó P.; Gonzalez, L.; Ye Lin, Y.; Prats-Boluda, G.; Garcia Casado, FJ. (2015). Identifying physical activity type in manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury by means of accelerometers. Spinal Cord. 53(10):772-777. https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2015.81S7727775310Buchholz AC, Martin Ginis KA, Bray SR, Craven BC, Hicks AL, Hayes KC et al. Greater daily leisure time physical activity is associated with lower chronic disease risk in adults with spinal cord injury. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab 2009; 34: 640–647.Hetz SP, Latimer AE, Buchholz AC, Martin Ginis KA . Increased participation in activities of daily living is associated with lower cholesterol levels in people with spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2009; 90: 1755–1759.Manns PJ, Chad KE . Determining the relation between quality of life, handicap, fitness, and physical activity for persons with spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1999; 80: 1566–1571.Serra-Añó P, Pellicer-Chenoll M, García-Massó X, Morales J, Giner-Pascual M, González L-M . Effects of resistance training on strength, pain and shoulder functionality in paraplegics. Spinal Cord 2012; 50: 827–831.Slater D, Meade MA . Participation in recreation and sports for persons with spinal cord injury: review and recommendations. NeuroRehabilitation 2004; 19: 121–129.Lee M, Zhu W, Hedrick B, Fernhall B . Determining metabolic equivalent values of physical activities for persons with paraplegia. Disabil Rehabil 2010; 32: 336–343.Lee M, Zhu W, Hedrick B, Fernhall B . Estimating MET values using the ratio of HR for persons with paraplegia. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010; 42: 985–990.Hayes AM, Myers JN, Ho M, Lee MY, Perkash I, Kiratli BJ . Heart rate as a predictor of energy expenditure in people with spinal cord injury. J Rehabil Res Dev 2005; 42: 617–624.Washburn RA, Zhu W, McAuley E, Frogley M, Figoni SF . The physical activity scale for individuals with physical disabilities: development and evaluation. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2002; 83: 193–200.Ginis KAM, Latimer AE, Hicks AL, Craven BC . Development and evaluation of an activity measure for people with spinal cord injury. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2005; 37: 1099–1111.Khan AM, Lee Y-K, Lee S, Kim T-S . Accelerometer’s position independent physical activity recognition system for long-term activity monitoring in the elderly. Med Biol Eng Comput 2010; 48: 1271–1279.Khan AM, Lee Y-K, Lee SY, Kim T-S . A triaxial accelerometer-based physical-activity recognition via augmented-signal features and a hierarchical recognizer. IEEE Trans Inf Technol Biomed Publ 2010; 14: 1166–1172.Liu S, Gao RX, John D, Staudenmayer J, Freedson PS . SVM-based multi-sensor fusion for free-living physical activity assessment. Conf Proc Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2011; 2011: 3188–3191.Liu S, Gao RX, John D, Staudenmayer JW, Freedson PS . Multisensor data fusion for physical activity assessment. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2012; 59: 687–696.Staudenmayer J, Pober D, Crouter S, Bassett D, Freedson P . An artificial neural network to estimate physical activity energy expenditure and identify physical activity type from an accelerometer. J Appl Physiol 2009; 107: 1300–1307.Trost SG, Wong W-K, Pfeiffer KA, Zheng Y . Artificial neural networks to predict activity type and energy expenditure in youth. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2012; 44: 1801–1809.David Apple MD . Pain above the injury level. Top Spinal Cord Inj Rehabil 2001; 7: 18–29.Subbarao JV, Klopfstein J, Turpin R . Prevalence and impact of wrist and shoulder pain in patients with spinal cord injury. J Spinal Cord Med 1995; 18: 9–13.Postma K, van den Berg-Emons HJG, Bussmann JBJ, Sluis TAR, Bergen MP, Stam HJ . Validity of the detection of wheelchair propulsion as measured with an Activity Monitor in patients with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 2005; 43: 550–557.Hiremath SV, Ding D, Farringdon J, Vyas N, Cooper RA . Physical activity classification utilizing SenseWear activity monitor in manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 2013; 51: 705–709.Itzkovich M, Gelernter I, Biering-Sorensen F, Weeks C, Laramee MT, Craven BC et al. The Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) version III: reliability and validity in a multi-center international study. Disabil Rehabil 2007; 29: 1926–1933.García-Massó X, Serra-Añó P, García-Raffi LM, Sánchez-Pérez EA, López-Pascual J, Gonzalez LM . Validation of the use of Actigraph GT3X accelerometers to estimate energy expenditure in full time manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 2013; 51: 898–903.Preece SJ, Goulermas JY, Kenney LPJ, Howard D . A comparison of feature extraction methods for the classification of dynamic activities from accelerometer data. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2009; 56: 871–879.Hurd WJ, Morrow MM, Kaufman KR . Tri-axial accelerometer analysis techniques for evaluating functional use of the extremities. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 2013; 23: 924–929.Teixeira FG, Jesus IRT, Mello RGT, Nadal J . Cross-correlation between head acceleration and stabilograms in humans in orthostatic posture. Conf Proc Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2012; 2012: 3496–3499.Hastie T, Tibshirani R, Friedman J . The Elements of Statistical Learning. Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction. Springer: New York, NY. 2009

Chemical characterization of a hypoglycemic extract from Cucurbita ficifolia bouche that induces liver glycogen accumulation in diabetic mice

Background: The aqueous extract of Cucurbita ficifolia (C. ficifolia) fruit has demonstrated hypoglycemic effect, which may be attributed to some components in the extract. However, the major secondary metabolites in this fruit have not yet been identified and little is known about its extra-pancreatic action, in particular, on liver carbohydrate metabolism. Therefore, in addition to the isolation and structural elucidation of the principal components in the aqueous extract of C. ficifolia, the aim of this study was to determine whether or not the hypoglycemic effect of the aqueous extract of Cucurbita ficifolia (C. ficifolia) fruit is due to accumulation of liver glycogen in diabetic mice.Materials and Methods: The aqueous extract from fruit of C. ficifolia was fractionated and its main secondary metabolites were purified and chemically characterized (NMR and GC-MS). Alloxan-induced diabetic mice received daily by gavage the aqueous extract (30 days). The liver glycogen content was quantified by spectroscopic method and by PAS stain; ALT and AST by spectrometric method; glycogen synthase, glycogen phosphorylase and GLUT2 by Western blot; the mRNA expression of GLUT2 and glucagon-receptor by RT-PCR; while serum insulin was quantified by ELISA method. A liver histological analysis was also performed by H&E stain.Results: Chemical fingerprint showed five majoritarian compounds in the aqueous extract of C. ficifolia: p-coumaric acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, salicin, stigmast-7,2,2-dien-3-ol and stigmast-7-en-3-ol. The histological analysis showed accumulation of liver glycogen. Also, increased glycogen synthase and decreased glycogen phosphorylase were observed. Interestingly, the histological architecture evidenced a liver-protective effect due the extract.Conclusion: Five compounds were identified in C. ficifolia aqueous extract. The hypoglycemic effect of this extract may be partially explained by liver glycogen accumulation. The bioactive compound responsible for the hypoglycemic effect of this extract will be elucidated in subsequent studies.Keywords: Cucurbita ficifolia, Cucurbitaceae, liver glycogen, hypoglycemic plants, p-coumaric acid, salicin, p-hydroxybenzoic aci

A Study of the Prevalence of Asthma in the General Population in Spain

Asma; Epidemiología; PrevalenciaAsthma; Epidemilogy; PrevalenceAsma; Epidemiologia; PrevalençaIntroducción El asma es una enfermedad con elevada prevalencia, que afecta a todos los grupos de edad y genera elevados costes sociosanitarios. Estudios realizados en diversas poblaciones muestran gran variabilidad en su prevalencia, incluso en poblaciones cercanas geográficamente, con datos que sugieren una influencia relevante de factores socioeconómicos. Actualmente en población adulta de España no disponemos de datos poblacionales fiables sobre la prevalencia de esta enfermedad. Los objetivos de este estudio son estimar la prevalencia de asma en población española de 18-79 años, describir la variabilidad entre comunidades autónomas, estimar la prevalencia de infra y sobrediagnóstico, prevalencia de asma no controlada, de asma córticodependiente, conocer el consumo de recursos sanitarios, identificar los fenotipos más frecuentes y establecer un punto de partida para evaluar la tendencia temporal con estudios posteriores. Material y métodos Se realizará un estudio transversal, bietápico, incluyendo pacientes de 50 áreas sanitarias. El estudio se desarrollará en tres fases: 1) cribado y confirmación en historia clínica, en la cual se identificarán los pacientes con diagnóstico previo correctamente establecido de asma; 2) diagnóstico de asma, evaluando a los pacientes en los cuales no está claro el diagnóstico de asma con los datos disponibles en la historia clínica; 3) caracterización del asma, analizando las características de estos pacientes e identificando los fenotipos más frecuentes. Discusión Parece necesario y factible realizar un estudio epidemiológico del asma en España que permita identificar la prevalencia de asma, optimizar la planificación sanitaria, caracterizar los fenotipos más frecuentes de la enfermedad y evaluar los diagnósticos erróneos.Introduction Asthma is a disease with high prevalence, which affects all age groups and generates high health and social care costs. Studies carried out in a number of populations show great variability in its prevalence, even in geographically close populations, with data suggesting a relevant influence of socio-economic factors. At present, we do not have reliable data on the prevalence of this disease in the adult population of Spain. The objectives of this study are to estimate the prevalence of asthma in the Spanish population for those aged 18-79, to describe the variability between autonomous communities, to estimate the prevalence of under and overdiagnosis, to analyse the prevalence of uncontrolled asthma and steroid-dependent asthma, to evaluate the health care cost, to identify the most frequent phenotypes and to establish a starting point to evaluate the temporal trend with subsequent studies. Methods A cross-sectional, two-stage study will be carried out, including patients from 50 catchment areas. The study will be carried out in 3 phases: 1) screening and confirmation in the clinical history, in which patients with a previously correctly established diagnosis of asthma will be identified; 2) diagnosis of asthma to evaluate patients without a confirmed or excluded diagnosis; 3) characterization of asthma, where the characteristics of the asthmatic patients will be analysed, identifying the most frequent phenotypes. Discussion It seems necessary and feasible to carry out an epidemiological study of asthma in Spain to identify the prevalence of asthma, to optimize healthcare planning, to characterize the most frequent phenotypes of the disease, and to evaluate inaccurate diagnoses.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por el Foro Autonómico de Asma-SEPAR

Methamphetamine blunts Ca2+ currents and excitatory synaptic transmission through D1/5 receptor-mediated mechanisms in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex

Psychostimulant addiction is associated with dysfunctions in frontal cortex. Previous data demonstrated that repeated exposure to methamphetamine (METH) can alter prefrontal cortex (PFC)-dependent functions. Here, we show that withdrawal from repetitive non-contingent METH administration (7 days, 1 mg/kg) depressed voltage-dependent calcium currents (ICa) and increased hyperpolarization-activated cation current (IH) amplitude and the paired-pulse ratio of evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) in deep-layer pyramidal mPFC neurons. Most of these effects were blocked by systemic co-administration of the D1/D5 receptor antagonist SCH23390 (0.5 and 0.05 mg/kg). In vitroMETH (i.e. bath-applied to slices from naïve-treated animals) was able to emulate its systemic effects on ICa and evoked EPSCs paired-pulse ratio. We also provide evidence of altered mRNA expression of (1) voltage-gated calcium channels P/Q-type Cacna1a (Cav2.1), N-type Cacna1b (Cav2.2), T-type Cav3.1 Cacna1g, Cav3.2 Cacna1h, Cav3.3 Cacna1i and the auxiliary subunit Cacna2d1 (α2δ1); (2) hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels Hcn1 and Hcn2; and (3) glutamate receptors subunits AMPA-type Gria1, NMDA-type Grin1 and metabotropic Grm1 in the mouse mPFC after repeated METH treatment. Moreover, we show that some of these changes in mRNA expression were sensitive D1/5 receptor blockade. Altogether, these altered mechanisms affecting synaptic physiology and transcriptional regulation may underlie PFC functional alterations that could lead to PFC impairments observed in METH-addicted individuals.Fil: Gonzalez, Betina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: Rivero Echeto, Maria Celeste Solange. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Muñiz, Javier Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; ArgentinaFil: Cadet, Jean Lud. National Institutes of Health; Estados UnidosFil: Garcia Rill, Edgar. University Of Arkansas For Medical Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Urbano Suarez, Francisco Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias; ArgentinaFil: Bisagno, Veronica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas; Argentin

Model for High-Throughput Screening of drug immunotoxicity - study of the antimicrobial G1 over peritoneal macrophages using flow cytometry

Modelos matematicos y citometriaQuantitative Structure-Activity (mt-QSAR) techniques may become an important tool for prediction of cytotoxicity and High-throughput Screening (HTS) of drugs to rationalize drug discovery process. In this work, we train and validate by the first time mt-QSAR model using TOPS-MODE approach to calculate drug molecular descriptors and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) function. This model correctly classifies 8,258 out of 9,000 (Accuracy = 91.76%) multiplexing assay endpoints of 7903 drugs (including both train and validation series). Each endpoint correspond to one out of 1418 assays, 36 molecular and cellular targets, 46 standard type measures, in two possible organisms (human and mouse). After that, we determined experimentally, by the first time, the values of EC50 = 21.58 μg/mL and Cytotoxicity = 23.6 % for the anti-microbial / antiparasite drug G1 over Balb/C mouse peritoneal macrophages using flow cytometry. In addition, the model predicts for G1 only 7 positive endpoints out 1,251 cytotoxicity assays (0.56% of probability of cytotoxicity in multiple assays). The results obtained complement the toxicological studies of this important drug. This work adds a new tool to the existing pool of few methods useful for multi-target HTS of ChEMBL and other libraries of compounds towards drug discovery.Conacy